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Home Remodeling Hell You Can’t Plan For

You can plan how to avoid or eliminate Home Remodeling Hell, but there is one type you just can’t avoid. It is very rare. In fact, I have only had it happen once. When your bathroom faucet starts leaking or your light fixture in the kitchen sparks, it can be a nightmare.

What is Product Failure?

Product failure is when a building product (a toilet, faucet or other purchased product) fails and needs to be replaced. Having a toilet or a faucet fail would be relatively easy to fix or replace. You unscrew or unbolt the product and replace it. Nightmare product failures occur when a product that is installed behind or integrated with other products. Let me tell you a nightmare story.

The Shower That Leaks

I had a young couple came to me who wanted to add on to their home so they could enlarge the master bedroom to create a master bedroom suite. Their home had only one bathroom for their growing family.

We designed a master bathroom with a vanity sink, toilet, and a beautiful shower. The shower was a bit of a challenge. The width was designed to be six feet. The design required a custom size shower pan. The contractor ordered the shower pan, and it delayed the project six weeks while we waited for the shower pan to arrive.

But it was well worth the wait; the completed bathroom was spectacular with its large shower. The contractor finished his work and closed out the project. A few days later the homeowner picked up some clothes on the floor next to the bathroom wall; they were damp. Now, this couple did have pets and suspected one of them couldn’t wait to go outside. But then the homeowner felt the floor, and it was very wet.

Call The Contractor

They did what all homeowners should do: they called their contractor. He came right over and started to investigate the situation. He cut the wall open and looked for a source of the water. The concrete slab was wet in all directions. They let the area dry and then turned on the shower. Water started to seep from the custom shower pan. A seal on top of the shower pan had failed.

The contractor called the shower pan supplier. They wanted the contractor to perform many different tests to confirm that the shower pan was the problem. He had to tape off the shower walls, caulk areas of the wall & floor, and plug drains. In the end, he did find that the shower pan was defective.

Now What?

Good question. Here was a shower pan that had wall tile, and floor tile and shower doors built around and on top of it. That is a lot of demolition to free the shower pan. Who is going to pay for that? The homeowner did not have to pay a dime. The homeowner just had to put up with an additional four months of demolition, ordering, repair and refinishing. The entire repair of the shower was paid for by the manufacturer. This is one type of Home Remodeling Hell you can’t plan for. Fortunately this situation is very rare.

How to Handle something like this

I suggest you do what my clients did. They laughed about it and had a glass of wine. Keeping your sense of humor is a critical way to combat the unknown. It is the best way to fight stress and will still leave you with a story to tell your friends. It all turned out well. The bathroom is back to looking spectacular, and my clients are delighted with the results.

Need Help?

Are you thinking of a home remodel project, and want to avoid home remodeling hell. Drop me an email and I will send you my #1 Best Selling Book: How To Avoid Home Remodeling Hell. This book will hell through most of the most commons problems with your home remodeling project. It won’t cost you a dime. As always if you have a question email me or call.